The Trudeau Liberal government has secretly dropped off $10.5 million to the confessed killer of a U.S. Army medic, The Globe and Mail reports.
Former al-Qaida terrorist Omar Khadr received his tax-free “compensation” from the Canadian government on Wednesday without any fanfare and cashed it immediately. Khadr will get to avoid paying any money to the widow of Sgt. Christopher Speer and wounded warrior Layne Morris, who was blinded when Khadr threw a grenade at U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Tabitha Speer and Morris won a $134 million civil action against Khadr in a Utah court that will have no impact on the decision by the Canadian government to reward a man who many in the Canadian media continue to label a “child soldier.”
The Trudeau government has yet to officially confirm the pay-out. In a statement on Friday, it described the transaction as “confidential.” Khadr’s lawyer, John Phillips, provided no comment when questioned by the Globe and Mail as did Canadian justice department lawyer Barney Brucker.
University of Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran was offering his comment on how the settlement bypasses any legal action initiated in the U.S. “The injunction is moot. It is absolutely moot,” he told The Globe. “Plus, if they are smart, that money is not sitting in Omar Khadr’s name, it is sitting in a trust fund or it is sitting in a corporation or some other structure, and good luck in enforcing against that.”
Legal settlements are not subject to Canadian income taxes so Khadr will walk away with every penny intact, making him, as the Conservative Party of Canada pointed out in an email to supporters, “one of the richest men in Canada.”
Neither the White House, the U.S. Department of Defense nor the U.S. embassy in Ottawa have provided any comment on the pay-out.
Outrage in Canada continues to escalate. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has gathered over 50,000 signatures on a petition it is circulating that condemns the actions of the Trudeau government.
Although Khadr received the money because the Supreme Court of Canada denounced his treatment at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility as “oppressive,” it did not recommend any financial compensation. Canadians — and the world — are still awaiting an explanation from the Trudeau government for why it decided to pay the former terrorist $10.5 million but it issued a formal apology to Khadr on Friday.